Intersections

Carlos Fuentes to be buried in famed Paris cemetery

** Originally published at World Now:

The remains of Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes will be buried in the famed Montparnasse cemetery in Paris alongside those of two children who died before him, his widow, Silvia Lemus, told reporters in Mexico.

Fuentes, who died Tuesday in Mexico City at 83, served as Mexico's ambassador to France in the 1970s. He was given the country's highest award for a non-Frenchman, the Legion of Honor medal, in 1992.

He told a reporter as early as 1995 that he was considering Paris for his burial, saying that Montparnasse "would be a great place to spend eternity."

The cemetery is the resting place for a litany of artists and other famous names, including Fuentes' friend and fellow Latin American man of letters Julio Cortazar of Argentina and the former Mexican dictator Gen. Porfirio Diaz.

The Fuentes family plot at the Montparnasse cemetery already holds the remains of his son Carlos, who died in 1999, and his daughter Natasha, who died in 2005. The plot also reserves a space for Lemus, reports said.

The author of "The Death of Artemio Cruz" and "Aura" consistently declined to discuss his children's deaths, although some news outlets have noted this week that Natasha Fuentes died in tragic circumstances in a tough Mexico City neighborhood. Among conflicting accounts of her death was that she suffered a drug overdose.

Fuentes was honored by President Felipe Calderon during a wake Wednesday at the Palace of Fine Arts in the heart of Mexico City.

* Photo: People touch the flag-draped casket of Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes during his wake at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City on Wednesday. Credit: Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press

UPCOMING: Three authors and a band on the border

We're doing a cool event on Tuesday night, May 22, at Casa Familiar in right in San Ysidro, the most southwesterly community on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Excited to share the space with Gustavo Arellano, OC Weekly editor and author of the new book "Taco USA"; Bill Nericcio, San Diego State professor and author of "Tex[t]-Mex," who organized the event; and un servidor. I think I'll read some from "El bajón y el delirio."

Also, local band Los Hollywood. Check out this piece on them at MTV. So, basically, it's a show! And Arellano and Nericcio are a blast, so this should be fun.

Busty hostess steals limelight in Mexico presidential debate

** Originally published at World Now:

MEXICO CITY -- It was, in a manner of speaking, the biggest moment of Sunday night's presidential debate in Mexico.

To mark the debate's start, a stunning, undeniably well-endowed model took the floor, smiling silently and carrying a box with four pieces of paper in it that candidates drew to see who went first.

The candidates managed a straight face, but at first sight of her, dozens of journalists inside the debate press room at Mexico City's World Trade Center gasped and jeered.

The woman, identified later as a model and former playmate for Mexican Playboy, Julia Orayen, almost immediately became a trending topic on Twitter.

Orayen was serving as an edecan, a role that has long been traditional to formal political, business, or entertainment events in Mexico.

The edecan is a sort of hostess who stands during meetings or parties to help guide or coordinate guests. They are usually attractive young women with long hair who wear sexy dresses and heels, a feature of Mexican public life that some consider a throwback to the culture's more macho tendencies.

"Who won the debate?" one Twitter user quipped. "Edecan: 93%."

As photos of the debate's busty model kept abuzz online overnight, analysts and even some of the candidates on Monday morning took the edecan as a topic serious enough to discuss on the morning news radio programs.

Speaking to host Carmen Aristegui, presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota said she thought Orayen was "very attractive" but that her dress was inappropriate for the generally serious nature of the debate, the first of two organized by the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE.

"The truth is, Carmen, I want to say that suddenly I was surprised, and I [thought], 'Well, what sort of event are we attending here?'"

Playing defense, a member of the IFE's governing council said that the edecan was hired by an independent production company contracted to organize the debate, but Councilor Alfredo Figueroa would not identify the producer (link in Spanish).

"We asked the producer that there be no elements of distraction, for a sober dress," Figueroa said.

Orayen had her own opinion on the matter. The model told W Radio host Brozo -- who wears a clown costume -- that she felt "weird" by the sudden surge of attention. 

"I just got a call to be there, I didn't know what it was going to be about, and much less that it would have such an impact for 30 seconds," Orayen said.

"The costume ... intrigued me," Brozo replied.

"I got a call for a white dress. I took many options, and this was the one chosen by me," she said.

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* Image: In a screen shot of Sunday's video feed of the presidential debate in Mexico, model Julia Orayen carries a clear box to each of the candidates. Credit: Twitpic.com, via Twitter

Mexico's presidential candidates offer some colorful surprises

** Originally published at World Now, by Daniel Hernandez and Cecilia Sanchez:

MEXICO CITY -- The four candidates for president of Mexico met in a two-hour debate on Sunday night that saw several colorful surprises but few signs that one candidate pulled away with a sure win.

Although the format was tightly controlled, with pre-approved questions written on paper and chosen from a row of boxes, a string of attacks and counterattacks on the part of the candidates offered a much livelier evening than initially expected.

Enrique Peña Nieto of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, held up a blown-up photograph of a newspaper article referring to a 2004 corruption case tied to leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Lopez Obrador, in turn, showed a photograph of Peña Nieto sitting arm in arm with former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of the PRI, a move meant to remind voters of the corruption and repression that occurred in the Salinas administration.

"Pure lies, pure insecurity, and that's how they want to impose [the candidacy of] Peña Nieto," Lopez Obrador said, referring to his long-held belief that the dominant television network Televisa is unofficially supporting the PRI campaign.

(The populist candidate for the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, however, held his photograph upside down for several seconds.)

The lone woman in the race, conservative Josefina Vazquez Mota of the National Action Party, or PAN, concentrated her attacks on Peña Nieto, who entered the debate as the front-runner in all polls.

Vazquez Mota drew attention to the tragic and seemingly unbelievable death of 4-year-old Paulette Gebara Farah, which occurred under Peña Nieto's term as governor in the state of Mexico.

"I am different because I have a trajectory of honesty and I come from two governments that have not mortgaged the lives of your children," Vazquez Mota said, referring to her party's two consecutive terms in power.

The fourth-place wild card, teacher Gabriel Quadri, tried his best to refer to himself as a "citizen" candidate, unlike his three leading rivals, while lobbing attacks across the board.

Despite the surprises, the first debate in the 2012 election was strictly moderated.

There was no live audience in the same room with the candidates, and no pre- or post-debate conference for the reporters and photographers who gathered in a press room far from the candidates' set at Mexico City's World Trade Center. The candidates stood at podiums facing cameras, not one another.

Before the debate, on the leafy streets outside the World Trade Center, some of the candidates' supporters gathered to rally and cheer on their favorite.

"We are sure that Enrique Peña Nieto is going to win the debate and the presidency," said Ernesto Alcantara, 28, an engineer. "We are here to tell him that he is our candidate, that we trust in him, and that he has our support."

Benita Soto, a 24-year-old student, said she was supporting Lopez Obrador because she said he offers an alternative.

"Enough of the bad governments of the PAN and the PRI," Soto said. "Lopez Obrador is the good guy."

Mexicans vote on July 1 in what will be the second presidential race since the PRI was voted out of power in 2000 with the election of President Vicente Fox of the PAN. In 2006, Lopez Obrador came within less than a percentage point of winning the presidency, which ultimately went to President Felipe Calderon -- results Lopez Obrador still claims were fraudulent.

Peña Nieto, known for his telegenic qualities but facing consistent criticism about his intellectual mettle, is attempting to ward off any potential shift in the race by Vazquez Mota or Lopez Obrador.

Analysts believe many Mexicans are willing to vote the PRI back into power after two terms of conservative, neoliberal-leaning PAN presidencies and the horrific violence brought by the drug war.

"I propose changing fear for hope, I propose changing Mexico," Peña Nieto said.

The next debate is scheduled for June 10.

* Photo: People watch the 2012 presidential campaign's first televised debate at Mexico City's Zocalo, or main square, on Sunday night. Credit: Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press

Mexican reporter killed in another case unlikely to be solved

** Originally published at World Now:

MEXICO CITY -- If the long list of unsolved murders of journalists in Mexico offers any indication, there is little likelihood that justice will be reached in the weekend death of magazine reporter Regina Martinez.

Little chance of a credible arrest. Little chance of charges or a successful prosecution for her killer or killers.

The 49-year-old journalist was found dead in her home in the state of Veracruz on Saturday, beaten and strangled to death. She was a correspondent for the national investigative news magazine Proceso and based in Xalapa, the capital of a coastal state where violence and corresponding impunity are widespread.

A neighbor called police after noticing Martinez's front door was left open since morning. The day before, Martinez was reporting on municipal police officers arrested for alleged links to organized crime. Throughout her career, Martinez reported on organized crime and corruption, including a 2007 case of the rape and killing of a indigenous woman at the hands of Mexican soldiers.

Martinez, a native of the state she covered, is at least the fourth journalist killed in Veracruz since Gov. Javier Duarte took office in late 2010, reports have noted.

Last year, a newspaper columnist and his wife and son were shot to death during an ambush in their home. A woman covering crime in the port of Veracruz was found decapitated. And a rural Veracruz columnist was kidnapped in March and found dead in May.

All those cases remain unsolved, said Mike O'Connor, a representative in Mexico for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which says that more than 40 journalists have been killed or have disappeared throughout the country since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.

The Duarte administration said it was investigating Martinez's murder and formed a special commission Sunday that includes the participation of Proceso's founder, Julio Scherer. But "given the history, there's very little likelihood that there will be justice in this case," O'Connor said.

Already, Veracruz prosecutors said one line of investigation is that Martinez may have been killed in a robbery. Two cellphones, a laptop computer and plasma television screen were stolen, they said.

"That is how they are going to minimize the gravity of this murder," Jose Gil Olmos, a fellow reporter for Proceso, said in an interview on Monday. "It is a message of power and impunity. That is the lesson of this act."

Calls made to the Veracruz state government were not returned.

Nationally, efforts to protect news gatherers during 5-1/2 years of high drug violence have been feeble or ineffective. The post of special federal prosecutor to investigate crimes against "freedom of expression" was created in 2006. But it has mainly operated as a revolving door for bureaucrats, and closed no significant cases. The latest official tapped to head the post was appointed in February.

On Monday, as previously scheduled, the lower house of Congress unanimously passed legislation meant to further help protect reporters (link in Spanish). Martinez's killing was memorialized from the chamber's floor with a minute of silence. But press advocates, in exasperation, said the basic problem remains. Killers are rarely brought to justice.

"There is simulation by the state," said Antonio Martinez, spokesman for Articulo 19, a free-speech advocacy group. "We have more than enough mechanisms for protection. Nevertheless, they fail to attack the impunity."

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Photos, from top: Journalists embrace during a demonstration in Mexico City condemning the killing of fellow journalist Regina Martinez in Veracruz on Saturday (Credit: Marco Ugarte / Associated Press);  Martinez, in an undated photograph (Revista Proceso).

Mexican ex-general once accused of narco ties is shot dead

** Originally published on April 22 at World Now:

MEXICO CITY -- A gunman has shot and killed a retired Mexican army general at a garage in Mexico City, authorities said.

Gen. Mario Acosta Chaparro was accused in 2000 of ties to the Juarez drug cartel in northern Mexico, but later exonerated. A lone gunman shot him three times in the upper body late Friday afternoon at a garage in the Anahuac district, on Mexico City's central-west side, authorities said. Witnesses said the gunman then fled on a motorcycle, the Mexico City attorney general's office reported.

Acosta, 70, who survived a shooting attempt in 2010, is the second retired general to be assassinated in Mexico City in the last year.

In May 2011, retired Gen. Jorge Juarez Loera was shot in Ciudad Satelite, a northwest suburb. Theoutspoken general had overseen Joint Operation Chihuahua, a military-led campaign targeting drug traffickers in the northern border state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez, the violence-plagued base of the Juarez cartel, is located.

Acosta Chaparro was accused in 2000 of ties to the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who for years led the Juarez cartel. Acosta Chaparro was sentenced by a military tribunal in 2002 to a minimum of 15 years in prison for ties to drug traffickers. The federal attorney general's office exonerated him in 2007, and the general retired in 2008, reports said. 

Mexico City Atty. Gen. Jesus Rodriguez Almeida told reporters Friday evening that authorities had not yet established a motive for the killing, and that his office would continue its investigation.

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* Photo: Retired Gen. Mario Acosta Chaparro is escorted by military police into a military court trial Oct. 31, 2002, in Mexico City. Credit: Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press

Room for dissent in Mexico's resurgent PRI

** Originally published on April 23 at World Now:

MEXICO CITY -- Inside the compound last Monday, the chief of Mexico's former ruling party called a news conference with the sole purpose of reading a letter aimed at a rival, with no questions from reporters allowed.

Outside, a small but energetic group of party members was blocking a major avenue and clashing with riot police. The group was calling for "respect to the rank and file," protesting how the party was choosing its candidates for local offices in this year's elections. Two members were arrested, police said.

It was an afternoon confrontation that some witnesses described as a frequent scene outside the well-guarded headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the front-runner in the presidential campaign.

"They divide the candidacies between them, it's a business," Gabriel Lara, a party commissioner in Mexico City, said after the chaotic scene, referring to local PRI leaders.

Although the PRI appears poised to easily retake power in Mexico behind presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, it also shows signs of internal conflict. The "inconformes," as the dissenters are called, claim unfair or corrupt practices among party officials in Mexico City, where the PRI is a relatively minor force compared with the dominant Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, a leftist party.

In recent weeks, PRI protests have also been held in the central state of Morelos, where more than 2,000 protesters have demanded a cleaner internal election process at the state-level PRI headquarters.

Rogelio Hernandez, a historian who specializes in the PRI at the Colegio de Mexico, said that the party is a "homogenous entity" with a complex family tree of factions and internal groups, so local and state conflicts are to be expected.

"The PRI has had a long history of problems in its internal processes," Hernandez said. "The leaderships try to manipulate the votes. It's a negotiation of a handing-out of posts, all stuff we don't have access to as common human beings."

Calls made to the local PRI offices were not returned.

Still, a few disgruntled party members don't seem likely to chip at the PRI's large national lead heading into the July 1 vote for president.

Peña Nieto, the party's presidential candidate, commands double-digit leads in polls over his nearest rival. Peña Nieto, a telegenic 45-year-old who is married to a television soap-opera actress, has kept away from unscripted public events since the campaign started, after a series of gaffes late last year.

Yet despite the claims against the local PRI outfit, protesters in Mexico City last week said they would still support Peña Nieto for president. He would be the first PRI candidate elected president since the end of the party's 71-year rule in 2000.

"The Peña factor is a unifying factor for priistas," said Lara, the PRI member. "He is the glue for the party rank and file."

Photo: Protesters face off against Mexico City police in front of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's national headquarters on April 16.

In Monterrey, Mexico, a culture of fear is evident

** Originally published on March 15 at World Now and in a different form on April 3 in the L.A. Times print edition:

MONTERREY -- Javier Guzman, a 25-year-old industrial engineer, eased his SUV toward the curb on a recent Sunday as a masked state police officer in the middle of the road signaled him to pull over.

Guzman rolled down his window, greeting the officer with a "Buenas tardes."

"Do you live here? Where are you coming from?" the officer asked.

"I live here, this car is mine," Guzman replied. He had nothing to hide, yet began coughing nervously.

The officer, dressed all in black, from combat boots to hooded ski mask, circled the vehicle. A long automatic assault rifle dangled at his side. After a few more questions, he let Guzman drive on.

Such checkpoints are now part of daily life in Monterrey, a metropolitan region of more than 4 million -- Mexico's wealthiest and third-largest city. The brief anxiety that these encounters produce in people is probably the least of residents' worries.

Monterrey, the sleek capital of Nuevo Leon state, is said to be in danger of "falling" to organized crime.

The city is beset by shootouts, armed robberies and "mass panic" incidents over any sign of danger.

More than 400 people have been killed in the state so far this year, compared with 315 in the same period in 2011, one local report said. Extortion by cartels or petty criminals is believed to be widespread. And, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2009, "all of the region's police forces are controlled by organized crime."

A culture of fear is evident. Last week, a shootout near a mall forced panicked shoppers to cower inside stores in confusion, now a common scene in the city. In 2010, five people died during a stampede at a concert in the suburb of Guadalupe after the sounds of shots were heard.

All of it is leading to what some dub an "exodus" from Monterrey, a brain drain that includes businessmen, artists and young professionals. Most are said to be moving to Mexico City or to cities in nearby Texas.

Guzman, a native of the southern state of Oaxaca, plans to return home later this year. Despite a good job with a U.S. company, he said the security situation is forcing him to reconsider his long-term goals about life in Nuevo Leon.

He moved to Monterrey in 2006 to enroll at the Tec de Monterrey, one of Mexico’s most prestigious universities. The high concentration of top industrial companies in the region nearly guaranteed rich job prospects after graduation, making Monterrey more attractive at the time than crowded Mexico City.

"My parents didn't want me to go to Mexico City because Mexico City was considered crazy and insecure," he said. "And now, it's more insecure here."

Hard data on outward migration from Monterrey are difficult to come by.

Jose Juan Cervantes, a researcher at the Nuevo Leon state university, said efforts by private or public census workers to figure out how many people have left the region have been hampered. Residents hesitate to give out information on their actual whereabouts, and insecurity on roads outside the city prevents investigators from visiting towns that are said to be nearing empty, he said.

"We know people are leaving to the U.S. or other parts of Mexico that are calmer, and not just business people, people of the middle class. But ... we don't have a solid number," Cervantes said. "We don't know yet because it's a line of investigation that we are not really exploiting for the same reason, the war" on drugs.

Scars from the conflict dot the city.

Worn bullet holes mark the exterior green walls of the Cafe Iguana, a music venue in the once-vibrant Barrio Antiguo neighborhood near downtown Monterrey. Four people were killed in an attack there in May, including a well-liked bouncer known as Pablote.

The Casino Royale, where 52 people died after suspected drug traffickers torched it in August, still stands. It is a ghostly structure where mourners were seen recently placing flowers in memory of the victims.

This week, students at the Tec de Monterrey planned protests to mark two years since two Tec students were killed during a shooting involving Mexican soldiers. The military at first said the students, Jorge Antonio Mercado and Javier Francisco Arredondo, were criminals.

The National Human Rights Commission investigated and concluded that the soldiers "violated the rights" of the students.

Diana Figueroa, 23, is a Monterrey native who studies international relations at the Tec and also works with the local chapter of Amnesty International. She said regios, as locals are nicknamed, are sometimes hesitant to be seen as voicing protests over violence or corruption in Monterrey.

"You invite people to a demonstration or something, and they say, 'I don't have time' or 'I think I help out more by doing my job well,'" she said.

Some aspects of Monterrey's vaunted urban culture have managed to thrive. A generation of young Monterrey DJs -- stuck at home with their laptops -- is fusing Colombian cumbia with so-called tribal electronic beats to produce a new genre known as tribal guarachero.

The scene is gaining popularity outside Monterrey and among young Latinos in the United States. At NRMAL, an independent music festival held this month, 4,500 fans turned up to see a variety of U.S. and Mexican bands in the suburb of San Pedro.

"We need to see this with a wider point of view, not just as a security thing," said Antonio "Toy" Hernandez, a former member of the popular band Control Machete who helped generate the new music scene under the name DJ Toy Selectah.

"We are living an end of an era, and in Mexico, it's really going on, that end," Hernandez said. "We are probably living -- instead of a revolution -- an evolution."

The idea was echoed by other residents interviewed here, but evolving into what? Parts of the region are kept "safe," presumably in pacts with criminal groups, but other parts seemingly live under an unofficial curfew, in fear of kidnappings and attacks on women.

"It is a good place to live and to study, I like it," Guzman, the industrial engineer, said of the adopted city he is soon leaving. "There was more security [before], but, I don't know. I think now it's evolving."

Photo: The Casino Royale in Monterrey, Mexico, was torched by suspected drug traffickers in August, killing 52.

Leading Mexico candidate, actress wife star in reality TV campaign ads

** Originally published at World Now:

MEXICO CITY -- The campaign for the front-runner in Mexico's presidential election is producing reality TV-style documentary videos that show him kissing and flirting with his wife, eating ice cream and returning home after a day on the campaign trail to hug his daughters.

The videos constitute a new level in the blurring of lines between politics and pop media in Mexico, and appear to be energizing support among voters.

Enrique Peña Nieto, galloping toward the July 1 vote with a double-digit lead over his two main rivals, would be the first president from the former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the 21st century. The PRI, often labeled through its history as quasi-authoritarian, was booted from power in 2000.

The videos primarily star Peña Nieto's wife, telenovela actress Angelica Rivera, and are narrated from her perspective under the title, "What My Eyes See, and What My Heart Feel" (links in Spanish). In them, she follows her husband to campaign events and chats with him between stops in clips that feel like journals or diary entries.

One ends with Peña, 45, and Rivera, 41, arriving home and letting the viewer in on plans for an evening of dinner, bathing and bedtime. In another, he samples local ice cream. Here's a new clip from a stop in Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco:

The videos are meant to show an informal, intimate side of the couple, who married in 2010 after the sudden death in 2007 of Peña Nieto's first wife, Monica Pretelini, while he governed the central state of Mexico. The clips have garnered thousands of views on YouTube and "likes" on Facebook. There, Rivera's public page frequently posts casual snapshots of her and her family.

Political advertising in Mexico's two most recent presidential campaigns, won by Vicente Fox in 2000 and fellow conservative Felipe Calderon in 2006, has moved steadily toward a more U.S.-style media approach. The PRI's effort this year takes the current social-media orientation of Mexican politics to a new level.

Peña Nieto personifies the trend, making some political commentators bemoan the nature of the 2012 race. In a Jan. 27 column in the daily Reforma, author Juan Villoro called Peña Nieto a "political hologram" and a "tele-candidate."

"There is no election today that is not decided in the media," Villoro wrote. "Trusting in this precept, the PRI has chosen a telegenic candidate. The problem is that he appears to have little more than luminous wrapping."

U.S. officials in Mexico have been watching Peña Nieto's rise for years, noting his telegenic qualities since the start, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. One of those cables from 2009 relays a description of Peña Nieto as "a pretty face with nationwide appeal, but lacking in substance and political savvy."

His strongest detractors early on were apparently concentrated within his own party, the leaked cables show. In another from 2009, contacts inside the PRI told U.S. officials that they believed Peña was "paying media outlets under the table for favorable news coverage, as well as potentially financing pollsters to sway survey results."

His campaign has carefully guarded his public appearances, and the videos in "What My Eyes See, and What My Heart Feels," although edited with an unscripted, chop-and-cut flair, are no different.

During his first campaign stop in the city of Oaxaca, for example, Rivera's video diary showed an upbeat Peña Nieto greeting supporters at the city's central plaza but no images of the crowds of demonstrators who had gathered to protest the PRI machine.

The party isn't alone in pumping funds into sleek documentary-style video spots.

The campaign for Josefina Vazquez Mota, candidate for the conservative National Action Party, released a video Wednesday documenting her visit that day to the prestigious Tecnologico de Monterrey university.

In it, she speaks to students in an auditorium, then responds to a protestor who yells at her from the audience. The nature of the protestor's complaint, however, is not specified, and neither is the candidate's response, for that matter. Instead, the video ends with a crescendo of music and the candidate calling over applause, "Do not tire of truth! Do not tire of liberty!"

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Photo: Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, center, and his wife, actress Angelica Rivera, left, during a campaign stop in Papantla, Veracruz, on April 13. Credit: Peña Nieto campaign

Mexico's 'Popo' volcano shoots glowing rocks

** Originally published at World Now:

Glowing red rocks were thrown from the top of the active Popocatepetl volcano at dawn Friday, producing more spectacular (and slightly frightening) images from the peak southeast of populous Mexico City. But authorities did not raise the alert level for a potential major eruption.

"Popo" or "Don Goyo," as the volcano is affectionately known, has been shooting plumes of ash, gas and rocks for a week. Residents of the semirural communities near the volcano have reported hearing hours of "low-pitched roaring" emanating from the 17,887-foot Popocatepetl.

President Felipe Calderon said Friday during a meeting with governors of the peak's neighboring states that the government is prepared, in case evacuations become necessary. Authorities said contingency plans are ready if the volcanic activity threatens residents in the states of Mexico, Puebla and Morelos.

"The volcano is in command," said Roberto Quaas, director of Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center. 

The government has not raised its alert level on the volcano since Monday. Yet a week of sustained exhalations has produced worry among some Mexicans who live near "Popo," which is visible from some points of Mexico City on days with relatively low pollution.

An estimated 5 million people would be directly affected by a large-scale eruption, and some 19 million other people live near the volcano.

Popocatepetl, which means "smoking mountain" in the Aztec's language Nahuatl, dominates much of the landscape in central Mexico along with its "twin" volcano, the dormant Iztaccihuatl.

Popo spews gas, ash; authorities raise alert

** Originally published at World Now:

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano has ramped up activity in recent days, spewing ash and gas and prompting authorities to raise the alert level for neighboring communities in the states of Mexico, Morelos, Tlaxcala and Puebla.

The federal government said "Popo," as the volcano is commonly known, has been spewing red-hot rocks and also seen its lava dome expand in recent days. Ash has fallen on some communities and glowing light has been photographed atop the 17,887-foot peak at night.

The volcano has "exhaled" at least 14 times since Friday, said a recorded message at the National Disaster Prevention Center. Popo, located about 50 miles southeast of Mexico City, has been increasingly active in recent months, the center said. Late Monday, the official alert level for the volcano was raised a notch, but remained short of a grade that would require evacuations.  

Separately, Mexico has been rattled in recent weeks by a series of strong earthquakes, including a 7.4 temblor on March 20 that briefly prompted a false rumor of a rising volcano near the quake's epicenter in the state of Guerrero.

* Photo: Ash and smoke rise from Popocatepetl volcano, as seen from the town of Xalitzintla in the central state of Puebla on Tuesday. Credit: Pablo Spencer/AFP/Getty Images

Back again, AMLO makes pitch to business leaders

** Originally published at World Now:

In 2006, when he came within a hair of winning Mexico's presidency, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was called a "danger to Mexico" by his opponents on the right, a would-be Hugo Chavez who would plunge the country into an economic crisis.

Six years later, Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, is back and in a second run for the country's top office.

This time around, he has sought to soften his image, and the traditionally conservative business elites now appear open to at least listening to the man bidding to become Mexico's first leftist president in modern times.

On Thursday, Lopez Obrador addressed a group of leading private-sector finance chiefs for the first time in his political career. He was greeted with smirks and chuckles at some points, but drew applause when he said he'd basically "maintain macroeconomic policies" currently in place in Mexico.

"We have no plans to expropriate, we will respect concessions, contracts [to foreign companies]," Lopez Obrador said.

He also told the Institute of Mexican Finance Executives during a freewheeling two-hour breakfast session that he'd aggressively seek to reduce poverty and "combat corruption" and waste through austerity measures.

He said his team believes it can make Mexico's economy grow 6% annually while creating 1.2 million new jobs a year, through a mix of public and private investments, including roads and refineries. His overall model, he said, is rising economic powerhouse Brazil under leftist leader and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

With austerity cuts, the government could save billions of pesos a year, Lopez Obrador added; he'd start by halving the presidential salary and flying in commercial jets if elected.

"If we don't combat poverty and inequality, we will keep seeing frustration, insecurity, and violence," he said.

Lopez Obrador, 59, has been running third for most of this election season heading to the July 1 vote. Yet in recent days, as conservative opponent Josefina Vazquez Mota has made a series of stumbles, he appears to be moving up in some polls.

Still, even a dramatic surge in support for either candidate might be too little, too late, to top the candidate for the resurgent formerly ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, Enrique Peña Nieto, who maintains a comfortable double-digit lead over both.

It was unclear how strongly Lopez Obrador's message resonated with the business group. One attendee, Beatriz Zarur, said that in 2006 she supported Felipe Calderon, the current president. This year, she said she was still unsure whom to support.

"I think he has some interesting proposals, but at the same time, he's got things that I don't agree with," said Zarur, who works for a law firm in Boston and whose mother is an IMEF member.

"I am not a partisan," Zarur added. "I don't care if she's a woman or he's handsome. I'm interested in proposals and in candidates."

Photo: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate of the leftist coalition of Mexico, speaks at his campaign launch March 30. Credit: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images

Poll: Mexicans more afraid to walk alone at night

** Originally published at World Now:

Mexicans' trust in their military and national police has steadily declined since 2007, the first full year of President Felipe Calderon's war against drug cartels, a new Gallup poll says.

The poll released last week also finds that most Mexicans said they felt less safe walking alone at night in 2011 than they did in 2007.

The findings suggest that two key points of perception in Mexico's conflict -- safety and confidence in authorities -- have eroded since the start of the military-led campaign in late 2006.

In the poll, 56% of Mexicans said they didn't feel safe walking alone at night in their city or neighborhood in 2011, in contrast to 57% who said they felt safe walking alone at night in 2007.

The poll shows a steady decline of confidence in the military, from 64% in 2007 to 58% in 2011. Only 38% of respondents expressed confidence in the government in 2011, and 35% said they trusted the federal police, down significantly from 50% in 2007, Gallup reports.

allup said it has polled approximately 1,000 Mexican citizens 15 or older, in face-to-face interviews, starting in July 2007.

As Mexico's drug war nears the six-year mark, more than 50,000 people have been killed in related violence and thousands more are missing.

The Gallup poll measures public perceptions of safety and security institutions in Mexico through  December. Recent data released by Mexico's national statistics institute, however, indicate that public safety perception has improved as recently as last month.

INEGI, as the institute is known by its Spanish acronym, said its Public Safety Perception Indexrose 5.5 points in March 2012 from March 2011 (pdf link in Spanish). The index measures how safe Mexicans feel walking in the area where they live between 4 and 7 p.m.

ALSO:

Mexico's defense secretary acknowledges errors in drug war

Who is responsible for the casino tragedy in Mexico?

Coping with fear in Monterrey, Mexico, or leaving it

Photo: Soldiers and federal police inspect a car that police said contains four human heads in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco on March 22. Violence continues in Acapulco as drug gangs battle for control of the region. Credit: Bernandino Hernandez / Associated Press

Back home in Mexico wearing U.S. military surplus

What does it mean that Mexican migrants are returning to their home lands, starting up farms, and wearing U.S. military surplus while doing it?

In this report in the Christian Science Monitor, the workers followed by reporter Sarah Miller Llana all appear to be wearing recent U.S. military surplus, clothes concievably manufactured for the United States's war campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Here are more:

So, Mexican workers pushed north to the United States by the economic realities in both countries, returning home to Guanajuato after the U.S. downturn, and starting up new farms wearing soldier gear? No idea.

Read the full report here, another homage to "net zero migration," and the video of the guys here. A strong, deeply reported story.